Popular uprisings, protests and unconstitutional regime changes are common characteristics of political change and political life in Africa. The decade 2011–2021 has seen a wave of popular uprisings slamming against the bedrock of long-established autocratic regimes. Put together, and to varying degrees, the uprisings of the last decade have especially occasioned peculiar but complex political transitions at the helm of affected African countries, eliciting varying responses from the African Union, and testing the relevance and applicability of existing normative frameworks at the continental and subregional levels.

This Report undertakes a broad reflection of the regional responses to popular uprisings in Africa over the last decade.